Philipsen beats Ewan and Jakobsen to win Elfstedenronde

Image 1 of 5

Belgian Jasper Philipsen of AlpecinDeceuninck celebrates as he crosses the finish lmine to win the Elfstedenronde one day cycling race race 8 out of 10 of the Lotto Cycling Cup 1903km with start and finish in Brugge Sunday 11 June 2023 BELGA PHOTO DAVID PINTENS Photo by DAVID PINTENS BELGA MAG Belga via AFP Photo by DAVID PINTENSBELGA MAGAFP via Getty Images — Philipsen celebrates (Image credit: Getty Images)

Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) won the 2023 Elfstedenronde, beating big sprint rivals Caleb Ewan (Lotto Dstny) and Fabio Jakobsen (Soudal-QuickStep) three weeks before the start of the Tour de France.

The Belgian one-day race came down to a bunch finish and Philipsen was comfortably the quickest with a searing sprint up the left-hand side of the road.

Philipsen had to do it the hard way, losing lead-out man Jonas Rickaert to a crash earlier in the race. In a messy run-in to Bruges, his remaining teammates had to close a slight split to Jakobsen, who'd latched onto a three-man Uno-X lead-out.

Alexander Kristoff was on support duties for Erlend Blikra for the Scandinavian team and hit the front until Ewan's lead-out man Jasper De Buyst stormed to the front in the final 400 metres, then leaving Blikra having to open from range.

As this was happening, Philipsen sensed his moment and hit out on the left, sprinting into the slipstream of the fading Kristoff and then moving out in front of Jakobsen and Blikra.

Jakobsen looked to then hit out to the right, with Ewan launching even wider and coming past the European champion on the line. But neither could match Philipsen, who collected his fifth victory of the season.

"Uno-X had did really strong lead-out, there was also a small gap, but my teammates brought me back in a good position, I could open my sprint with 200 metres to go and it was enough," said Philipsen.

Results powered by FirstCycling

Thank you for reading 5 articles in the past 30 days*

Join now for unlimited access

Enjoy your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1

*Read any 5 articles for free in each 30-day period, this automatically resets

After your trial you will be billed £4.99 $7.99 €5.99 per month, cancel anytime. Or sign up for one year for just £49 $79 €59

Join now for unlimited access

Try your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1

Deputy Editor. Patrick is an NCTJ-trained journalist who has seven years’ experience covering professional cycling. He has a modern languages degree from Durham University and has been able to put it to some use in what is a multi-lingual sport, with a particular focus on French and Spanish-speaking riders. After joining Cyclingnews as a staff writer on the back of work experience, Patrick became Features Editor in 2018 and oversaw significant growth in the site’s long-form and in-depth output. Since 2022 he has been Deputy Editor, taking more responsibility for the site’s content as a whole, while still writing and - despite a pandemic-induced hiatus - travelling to races around the world. Away from cycling, Patrick spends most of his time playing or watching other forms of sport - football, tennis, trail running, darts, to name a few, but he draws the line at rugby.